Board of Directors
The Foothill-De Anza Foundation Board of Directors is comprised of influential members of the local and college community, who understand the key roles that Foothill and De Anza colleges play in our region. The Foundation Board is also committed to raising awareness and generating philanthropic support that has placed both colleges at the top of community colleges throughout the nation.
The 2024-2025 Foothill-De Anza Foundation Board of Directors
Diana Bautista, President
Diana Bautista is the Government Relations Manager for Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
Stanford. In this role, she is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships
with local, state, and federal elected officials and their staff.
Ahmed Mostafa, Vice President
Ahmed Mostafa attended Foothill College as a student where he majored in Political Science. In his last year at Foothill, he was the student body president and created long-lasting initiatives, such as preserving The Writing Center and The Math Center when faced with budget cuts.
BEN DUBIN, TREASURER
Ben Dubin joined Asset Management Ventures (AMV) as a partner in 1998 and has over 20 years of experience working in technology, primarily as an engineer and technologist.
Prior to joining AMV, he was the senior manager for Enterprise Java at JavaSoft. His responsibilities included the introduction, management, and marketing of the EJB component technology as well as some other essential Java interfaces such as JNDI, JMS, RMI, and JDBC technologies.
In 1987, he joined Sun Microsystems under Eric Schmidt and helped design and release a state-of-the-art parallel software development environment. He started as a hardware and software engineer at Lockheed Martin in 1985 designing EDA tools for chip and board-level systems. Ben has co-founded two Silicon Valley start-up companies: Full Source Software, an open-source application software firm, and Los Altos Technologies, an open systems software security business, both with his friend and business partner Gary Kremen. He holds a US patent on a technique for minimal information database restoration.
When Ben isn't working with tech, he enjoys playing with his sons in the outdoors, working on cars, and keeping fit. He is also a teacher for the last 8 years at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, teaching a class that he created in entrepreneurship. Ben is also involved with the Finance Committee of the Computer History Museum and is a trustee at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga.
Ben holds two Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Michigan, in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Art Swift, Secretary
Art has 30 plus years of executive-level experience in the tech and microprocessor industry, including as CEO at low power processor chip maker Transmeta; as president of MIPS, a leading provider of microprocessor IP; as CEO of Wave Computing, a pioneer in dataflow computing architectures; CEO of CUPP Computing, a Norwegian – Israeli cyber security company, and President of the prpl Foundation, a cyber security non-profit.
Previously, Art served in executive-level positions at Cirrus Logic, Digital Equipment’s Alpha processor group, and Sun Microsystems, one of the pioneering companies in networked computing and RISC processing.
Currently, Art is serving as President, CEO and Member of the Board of Directors of Esperanto Technologies, Inc. a leading supplier of energy efficient AI chips based in Silicon Valley. Esperanto is a venture backed startup which has raised more than $185 million in investments to date.
Art has previously served on the Foothill DeAnza Foundation board of directors starting in 2006 until he termed out after multiple terms. He has also been continuously involved on the Foundation Finance Committee and is active on the Science and Learning Institute Advisory Committee.
Art is passionate about providing internship opportunities for FHDA students at his own company, and through his large network of corporate execs in Silicon Valley. Art has participated in various fund-raising efforts for the colleges, starting with the successful $490 million Measure C Bond offering in 2006.
Art earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. He is a named co-inventor on three patents relating to reconfigurable logic.
ASHLEY OROPEZA, Immediate Past PRESIDENT
Ashley Oropeza is a Foothill Aluma who transferred to the University of San Francisco. During her time at Foothill, she was active in student leadership and diversity programming. Now at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Clinical Operations, Oncology. She is a young professional who is eager to give back to Foothill and serve the community.
Swati Advani
Swati Advani is an active member of the Bay Area community and is involved with a variety of causes and organizations. She has devoted her time to both early childhood and secondary education and has been engaged in fundraising efforts for the Las Lomitas School District in San Mateo County as well as Pinewood School in Los Altos.
She is currently active in Jumpstart’s efforts to boost preschoolers’ performance in low-income neighborhoods. She is also active in US-India cross-border philanthropic initiatives around education and microfinance through the American India Foundation and the Lok Foundation.
Prior to her work on education in the Bay Area, she pioneered the environmental sciences program at the Bombay International School in Mumbai, India. During her years in Washington, DC, she worked on a variety of environmental class action suits.
She has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Maryland as well as a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Bombay. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting & Finance from the University of Bombay. She is married with three daughters and lives in Atherton, California. In addition to the Bay Area, she has lived for extended periods of time in Washington, DC, Mumbai, and Singapore.
Patrick Ahrens, BOARD OF TRUSTEE, EX-OFFICIO
Patrick Ahrens was elected to an at-large position on the Foothill-De Anza Community College District Board of Trustees in November 2018 and reelected without opposition in 2022 to represent Trustee Area 2.
Patrick Ahrens is the district director for Assemblymember Evan Low in California
Assembly District 26.
Patrick has been active in Democratic Party politics at the local, state, and federal levels, serving as campaign manager in two elections. An active community volunteer, he served on the board of directors of the Foothill-De Anza Foundation before his election. Ahrens became deeply interested in higher education policy as a student at De Anza College when he was the first in his family to go to college and was elected to serve as student trustee on the Foothill-De Anza Community College District's governing board. He holds an associate degree from De Anza College, a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master's degree in public administration from San Jose State University. He lives in Sunnyvale, CA.
Elaine Andersen
Elaine Slosberg Andersen was a Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Neuroscience (now Emerita) at the University of Southern California. She received her AA with high honors from Foothill College, before earning her BA (with great distinction), MA, and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
The focus of her research is the relation of language to other cognitive functions (e.g., memory and attention), which she has explored from a developmental perspective through the lifespan, including projects on Language & Cognitive Development in Blind Children, Cross-linguistic Development of Sociolinguistic Skills, Language and Cognitive Changes in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease, and Child-Machine Spoken Interfaces. She has been awarded numerous research grants from federal and private foundations (e.g., NIH, NIA, NATO, March of Dimes, the Spencer Foundation) and is the author of dozens of journal articles, as well as an author of one book and editor of another.
She was a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow, a Senior Research Fulbright Fellow in Lyon, France (Maison de Science de l'Homme), a Visiting Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Psycholinguistik, an invited Professor at Paris V (the Sorbonne: Rene Descartes), at UC Davis, and at the Summer Schools of both the Society for Research in Child Development and the Linguistics Institute of America.
Outside of Academia, Dr. Andersen has served on the board of the Bring Me a Book Foundation, as a mentor in the Peninsula College Fund, and on the Foothill College Commission for many years.
Jonathan Axelrad
Jonathan Axelrad is an internationally recognized private investment fund attorney
with a focus on venture capital funds. He is retired from law practice and currently
works part-time as a consultant and expert witness.
He has specialized in all aspects of the formation and operation of venture capital and other private equity funds, with a particular emphasis on issues involving partnerships, limited liability companies, tax, and other areas. He has decades of legal experience with Goodwin Procter LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC, among others. Jonathan is the author of numerous publications and holds a patent in the area of private equity fund formation. Jonathan is a graduate of Wesleyan University and earned his JD from the Yale Law School.
Shyamoli Banerjee
Shyamoli Banerjee has a broad and varied background in deep technology, education and wellness. She started her career designing computer processor chips (semiconductors)
for top Silicon Valley companies including Silicon Graphics, AMD and Evans and Sutherland.
She then moved to volunteering her time at The Harker School where her two sons attended. She is a certified yoga instructor and taught yoga for several years in Bay Area wellness studios.
Shyamoli holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stonybrook University in New York and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India. She currently serves on the Foothill-De Anza Foundation Board of Directors and is on the Advisory Board of the Harker School in San Jose. She and her husband live in Los Altos Hills. Her hobbies and interests include skiing, hiking, biking, reading and traveling.
Christina Espinosa-Pieb, Acting President, De ANza, Ex-Officio
Christina Espinosa-Pieb is acting president of De Anza College. She has worked at the college for almost four decades, and was vice president of Instruction from 2008-2023. Espinosa-Pieb began her current position on March 1, 2024.
Espinosa-Pieb first came to De Anza as a community volunteer and then became a student employee in 1980. A first-generation college student, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Phoenix and a master’s degree in International and Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco.
During her time at De Anza, Espinosa-Pieb has been deeply committed to student equity and student success. As a vice president, she worked to ensure diversity in faculty hiring to better reflect De Anza’s highly diverse student body. Earlier in her career, she oversaw programs for disabled students, managed the Learning in Communities and Honors programs, and for several years taught a course titled “Women of Color in the USA.”
James Jones
James is the Chief Financial Officer for C360 Technologies, Inc, a computer vision software company that provides immersive media technology to sports media companies.
Previously, he was the CFO, of Singularity University, and VP of Finance, KANA Software.
James also has experience as a strategic consultant and investment banker. In his
role as CFO, he is responsible for strategic and financial analyses, budgeting and
planning, cash management, investor relations, fundraising, capital structure planning,
and business performance measurements and metrics.
James has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering from the United States Military Academy. He also l serves as a trustee for the San Francisco Exploratorium.
Liz Kniss
Liz Kniss has recently left public service after holding public office for thirty-five years. Kniss began her public career when elected to the Palo Alto Unified School District Board in 1985, then was elected to the Palo Alto City Council in 1989, serving three terms as well as Mayor in 1994 and 2000.
In 1994, Mayor Kniss led Palo Alto to be the first city in the U.S. with a website. Affordable Housing, internet connectivity, and community family resources were emphasized while she served.
In November 2000, Kniss was elected to represent Santa Clara County's Fifth District on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. In her county role, she was on the boards of VTA, CalTrain, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and was elected to leadership roles on each board. After serving three terms, the maximum allowed at one time, she returned to the Palo Alto City Council. In 2016, she won by a decisive margin; Kniss was elected a total of ten times. She was elected mayor of Palo Alto for the third time in 2018.
Kniss’ background as a public health professional has proven of great value for serving in public office and supporting goals for a healthy environment and sustainable future. Kniss holds a BSN from Simmons University, an MPA from CSU, and studied health policy and economics at UCB. In addition, she also worked in Marketing and Communications at Sun Microsystems in SunLabs for over ten years.
Lee D. Lambert, chancellor, FHDA CCD, Ex-Officio
Lee Lambert serves as the eighth permanent chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. Lambert has more than two decades of experience in community colleges at the senior executive level and led Pima Community College from 2013 to 2023.
While at Pima, Lambert launched a nationally recognized Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training program, led the development of the college’s Centers of Excellence in applied technology, health care, hospitality, information technology and cybersecurity, public safety, and the arts, and worked with the Pima Foundation to secure a $5 million gift, the single largest in the college’s history. He also established fast track programs to train learners for in-demand jobs, invested heavily in Pima Online and embedded robust diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives throughout the college’s campuses and centers.
Prior to leading Pima, Lambert served nearly eight years as the president of Shoreline Community College in Washington, helping to restore the college’s financial stability, overseeing the development of the state’s first solar design degree and National Institute of Metalworking Skills accredited computer numerical control machinist programs, and turning the college into a national leader in offering 100 percent online degrees and certificates in business and health care programs.
Lambert’s personal story and early career path provide him with a deep understanding and respect for community college students and employees.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Lambert grew up on three continents. His late father, who was of mixed African American heritage, and his mother, who is South Korean, were frequent targets of racism and discrimination in South Korea and the U.S. He was the first in his multiracial family to attend college right out of high school but felt unsure that he belonged, a fear common to many first-generation community college students. He stepped out of college after a year to enlist in the U.S. Army, but following his military service reenrolled in college and successfully earned a degree.
Before assuming leadership of Shoreline, Lambert served as its vice president for human resources and legal affairs, a position secured after serving close to five years in successively responsible roles in human resources at Centralia College in Washington where he negotiated contracts, developed management training programs, and advocated for diversity and inclusion in hiring practices.
His first senior executive position in higher education was special assistant to the president for civil rights and legal affairs at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where he was responsible for diversity training, conducting investigations, and building a culture of respect for the diverse academic, socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, disabilities, and sexual orientations of students, faculty, and staff.
Lambert holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from The Evergreen State College and a juris doctor from Seattle University. He has taught as an adjunct faculty member at The Evergreen State College and Centralia College.
Besides his professional experience, Lambert has taken on leadership roles on local, state, and national boards and committees, including Credential Engine, National Association of Workforce Boards, National Coalition of Certification Centers, Arizona Chamber of Commerce, and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council.
Lambert has also been the recipient of many awards during his years of community college service. Recent recognition includes the Greater Tucson Leadership 2022 Man of the Year Award, the Chairs Academy 2022 Paul A. Elsner Excellence in Leadership Award, the Association of Community College Trustees 2017 Marie Y. Martin CEO of the Year Award, and Honorary Commander for the 612th Air Communications Squadron of Davis-Monthan Airforce Base.
Peter landsberger, BOARD OF TRUSTEE, EX-OFFICIO
Peter Landsberger was elected to the Board of Trustees in November 2016 and reelected in 2020. He has lived in Los Altos since 1978, when he was named the Foothill-De Anza Community College District’s first general counsel.
He subsequently served as district vice chancellor before becoming an instructor and then dean of business and computer science at De Anza College. Now retired, his 30-year career in community colleges includes service as president of the College of San Mateo, senior vice chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, and interim chancellor of the Los Angeles district. The chancellor of the California Community Colleges later appointed him special trustee of the Compton Community College District after Compton College lost its accreditation, a position he held for four years. He serves on the boards of the Foothill-De Anza Foundation, the Community School of Music & Arts in Mountain View, and UNITE–LA, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that leads collaborations aimed at developing highly effective schools, promotes business-education partnerships and expands college access and workforce development opportunities for under-served youth. He holds a doctor of law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Berkeley, and an associate degree in political science from Santa Monica College.
Alejandro Lara-Cervantes
Alex currently leads the development of an access-to-justice product at Impact Fund, a nonprofit organization serving marginalized communities through high-impact litigation.
He joined as the organization's first Product Manager and is passionate about building products from scratch. Alex has experience developing robust product strategies, leading international project teams, and supporting complex business-to-business sales engagements. Before Impact Fund, he served as an Associate Product Marketing Manager at View, Inc., a manufacturer of smart glass for commercial buildings that improve human health and address climate change. And before View, he served as an Analyst at Colliers, a leading commercial real estate services and investment management firm.
Alex earned his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Davis.
Orrin Mahoney
Orrin Mahoney is a long time resident of Cupertino, California. After graduating from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1967, he came to California to work at Hewlett-Packard and received a Master’s degree from Stanford while working there. After a 35-year management career at HP, he retired and devoted his time to community activities.
He is a member of the Cupertino City Council and has served twice as Mayor. In addition to many other community groups, including the De Anza Commission, he is an active member and past president of the Rotary Club of Cupertino.
As part of the Club’s International Service activities, he has participated in 10 project trips to Mexico, China, India, and Central and South America.
He is married, with four daughters and four grandchildren.
So Yong Park
So Yong Park is the former director of corporate development at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California. So Yong has dedicated herself to educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged students and to socioeconomic inequality within the Korean American community.
In 2014, she helped found and is a current board member of the Korean American Community
Foundation-San Francisco (KACF-SF), which provides grants to local organizations in San Francisco and raises awareness about the problems
that the community faces. She served a four-year term with the MVLA High School Foundation
and is a board member of the Parents Club of Stanford. So Yong is a graduate of Colorado College and a member of its Board of Trustees.
Malini Rao
Malini Rao is currently the Senior Director People Operations, Research & Artificial Intelligence, for Google. She has worked for Google in a variety of human resources roles in the technology, research, and AI portfolios for 17 years.
Before joining Google, Malini held HR management roles at Wachovia Bank and GE Capital where she managed employee relations and communications, training, and compensation. She holds a degree from Delhi University in India and Human Resources certifications from San Jose State University.
KAthleen Santora
As former President of the Foothill-De Anza Foundation, Kathleen has worked to focus the Foundation's attention on ways to serve students by "Changing Lives, One Student at a Time". Kathleen has also been involved with Foothill College's Environmental Horticulture division through her Slow the Flow Projects. She helped organize a Water Wise Landscape Conference and worked to install multiple rainwater harvesting systems at Foothill College.
In addition, she has led the implementation of a project to recycle water from Foothill College cooling towers to the campus irrigation system.
Kathleen is founder and chair of the Foothill College STEM Lecture Series, which brings community members to Foothill to hear thought leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Kathleen and her husband, Mark, have funded and helped implement the renovation of the UC Irvine Athletic Training Center. For the past 16 years, Kathleen has organized a ReCycle Bike Drive to benefit those less fortunate in our community. She is a member of the Los Altos Hills Water Conservation Committee and GreenTown Los Altos. In addition, she is a member of the Montalvo Arts Center Board of Trustees in Saratoga, Ca.
Kathleen holds a BS in Biology and an MBA with a concentration in Organizational Behavior. She resides with her family in Los Altos Hills.
Archana Sathaye
Archana Sathaye has had a career spanning industry, academia, and more recently non-profits. She
was a Principal Engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation in the Advanced Systems
Engineering Group.
She was an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh, was on the faculty in Computer Science at San Jose State University, and also was an adjunct professor in the Business School at Santa Clara University.
She has published several papers and contributed book chapters in performance and availability modeling, data mining, and discrete event dynamic systems. Recently, Archana spends her time with non-profit institutions. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of The Tech Museum, a Board Member of the Air Systems Foundation Scholarship Board, an Advisory Board Member of The Harker School, and an Advisory Board Member of the Sunday Friends Foundation. Archana has a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, a master's in Applied Mathematics from Virginia Tech, and a master's degree in Pure Mathematics from Bombay University.
Bruce Swenson
Bruce Swenson is a long-time resident of Palo Alto, CA. After graduating from Stanford U (BS-Mathematics) and U of Wisconsin (MS-Mathematics), he came to California to work at Foothill College in 1967 as an Instructor in Mathematics.
Subsequently, he became a Dean of the Physical Science and Mathematics Division and a Vice President of the College. He retired from Foothill in 1999 and, in 2005, he was elected to the FHDA Board of Trustees, where he served for 13 years. As Trustee, he represented the Board on both the District Audit-Finance Committee and the FHDA Foundation Board.
In 1992, he initiated and sponsored events called “Division Graduation Ceremonies” at Foothill, where faculty select and award scholarships to outstanding students in their classes. Students are selected based on outstanding academic work or exceptional effort in overcoming personal adversities. Faculty present the scholarships to those honored in front of family, friends, and fellow students each spring at special Division-sponsored Graduation Ceremonies. These Ceremonies have grown through the years, and now several hundred students are honored and awarded scholarships each year.
In 2020, he chaired the Measure G bond campaign committee for FHDA, a campaign that successfully passed an $898,000,000 bond to upgrade classrooms and technology -- expanding access to job training programs, so students can find better-paying jobs and work locally. In 2005, he joined the Palo Alto Rotary Club and subsequently chaired the Rotary Endowment Committee.
Bruce and his wife Barbara just celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary. They have 2 daughters and 5 grandchildren, all of whom live on the East Coast.
Savita Vaidhyanathan
Savita Vaidhyanathan and her tech-entrepreneur husband, Doc Vaidhyanathan are long-time residents of Cupertino. As a proud alumnus of De Anza College, she transferred to San Jose State University to earn an MBA.
She volunteers in the Cupertino community through organizations like the Rotary Club of Cupertino, West Valley Community Services (WVCS), and De Anza College Commission. She was instrumental in connecting the food programs administered through WVCS to address the needs of De Anza college students.
Savita was honored to be elected to the Cupertino City Council in 2014 and had the privilege to serve as Mayor in 2017. As an elected representative she drove initiatives to reduce traffic congestion, affect climate change policies, and support programs for youth and seniors. She also represented five West Valley cities on the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board and worked with De Anza students on the Smart Pass program.
Kristina Whalen, President, Foothill College, EX-OFFICIO
Dr. Kristina Whalen is the 8th president of Foothill College. She started in the role in March 2023 after serving five years as a senior executive, including four years as a vice president of instruction at Las Positas College and one year as the associate vice chancellor of Enrollment Management and Instructional Success at City College of San Francisco.
She was twice awarded the Chancellor’s Unity Award and the Academic Senate’s 10+1 award. In 2021 she was awarded the college's highest award for academic integrity, The Milanese Award, for her leadership during the pandemic. Dr. Whalen is a passionate leader of equity-advancing initiatives, most notably furthering the advancement of Guided Pathways and serving on several advisories and task forces for equity and anti-racism.
Dr. Whalen has developed a special commitment to using data-informed practices to improve the student experience. She has worked locally, regionally, and throughout California to foster leadership development that can manage and guide student success initiatives. Kristina’s years of argumentation and debate training around social justice and equity issues have led to an affinity for data literacy and storytelling. She strives to bring those affinities to collaborative problem-solving and institutional effectiveness in the service of students.
Her earlier administrative service included working as an instructional dean for Fine, Applied, and Communication Arts at the Fort Mason Campus in San Francisco and serving as a department chair for five years. Dr. Whalen has a Ph.D. in speech communication and a Master’s in rhetoric from Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in socio-political communication from Missouri State University. Dr. Whalen was a member of the 5th cohort of Aspen Institute Presidential Fellows for Community College Excellence, a group of 40 community college leaders selected for leadership training and transformational change at U.S. community colleges. She is the author of several articles and chapters on feminist rhetorical theory and performative techniques used to further argument.
Kristina was born in the District of Columbia, where her daughter now attends college. The daughter of a Navy veteran and Secret Service agent, she spent her formative years in Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri. In 1998 she moved to California.
Bill Wilson
Bill started his career as a mathematics professor. After teaching mathematics for nine years, he undertook a career in cybersecurity as a researcher and entrepreneur.
He founded Arca Systems, one of the first companies focused on information security, and served as its CEO until its acquisition by Exodus Communications. In 2015 Bill returned to his love of teaching mathematics by joining the De Anza mathematics department as a part-time instructor.
Bill has served on the Board of Trustees of the Fremont Union High School District since first being elected in 2006 and has strongly supported the growing number of partnerships between FUHSD and Foothill-De Anza.
Bill received his B.A. in mathematics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University.